Nolder v. Pennsylvania Railroad
Nolder v. Pennsylvania Railroad
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
Defendant appeals from a judgment against it following a verdict assessing damages to plaintiff for personal injuries he received as a result of being struck by a train at a grade crossing.
The case is within narrow bounds and involves a determination of whether plaintiff was contributorily neg
Plaintiff testified he looked in both directions, listened and proceeded across the tracks and that when he had taken one step into the second track he saw the locomotive so close upon him that he could not escape it. He admits he saw the rear of the train which had passed him when it was 100 feet away, and that he knew, frorh his familiarity with the crossing, that the passing train would obstruct his full view of the other track because of a curve until it was 200 feet beyond him, in his own language “its got to be 200 feet past before you can get a plain view of a train coming around the bend.’? Notwithstanding his knowledge of this situation, he attempted to make the crossing before the retreating train cleared the additional 100 feet which would have enabled him to see the other track for a sufficient distance to safeguard himself against the train approaching on it. A wait for a moment would have shown the danger. Under these circumstances, his own lack of caution bars recovery. “It is true beyond a doubt that the merest glance, with attention, to the north would have shown the approach of the train which subsequently struck [him] almost immediately upon [his] entrance on the
The analogy is very close between the instant case and those in which accidents have occurred on two-track street railways, where a pedestrian has walked around the rear of a car on one track and been injured by a car approaching in the opposite direction on the other. In Ollis v. Phila. Rapid Transit Co., 244 Pa. 355, we held binding instructions for the defendant should have been given where a boy in crossing, after dark, a street running north and south on which the double tracks of defendant’s street railway lay, passed directly behind a
For the reasons stated and under the authorities cited, we are compelled to hold judgment should have been entered for defendant notwithstanding the verdict.
Judgment is reversed and entered for defendant.
Reference
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- Nolder v. Pennsylvania Railroad Co.
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- Syllabus
- Negligence — JRailroads — Crossings — “Stop, looh, and, listen”— Contributory negligence — Evidence. 1. It is a traveler’s duty to keep a lookout while crossing the tracks of a railroad, as well as to stop before attempting to cross. 2. A pedestrian is guilty of contributory negligence if he approaches a double track railroad, stops, looks and listens, and then, without further stopping, walks over the first track and the space between the two tracks, and as he steps into the middle of the second track is struck by a passing train, which he could have seen by the merest glance if he had looked before committing himself to the second track. 3. In such case it is futile for him to say that his view was obstructed by a passing train, which had just passed on the first track in a direction opposite to that of the train which struck him.